No War, No Warming Disrupts Capitol Hill' by Ted Glick It's day 50 of my fast, 25 days on water-only, followed by 25 days on fruit and veggie juices and miso broth, with vitamin and protein supplements. I got a big test yesterday of how I'm doing on this liquids-only regimen. I was up early in the morning and down to the U.S. Capitol by 6:30 a.m. to get prepared for our No War, No Warming action. I was intensely involved in the for-sure œaction phase of the event from about 7:45 to 9:30, at which point I was arrested and taken off to jail with 60 other sisters and brothers. We spent about six-seven hours in a Capital Police facility, a garage, sitting all together on hard metal chairs while processing went on. Almost all of us were released by late afternoon. Through it all my body held up OK. I was somewhat surprised, given that I had almost no nourishment and just a small amount of water until I got out of jail and was able to get some juice. But my spirit was on fire yesterday. Such a great day! After months of planning we pulled off something the likes of which I've never been a part of. From 8 a.m. until 9:30 or 10, with action after action, we accomplished our objectives, which were to disrupt business as usual on Capitol Hill and send a message out nationally (and internationally) via the mass media that people are outraged that the U.S. Congress, almost one year after a (supposedly) new one was elected, has done nothing to end the war, pass strong global warming legislation or address the myriad of justice and survival issues facing the country that are worsening because of the war and the climate crisis. It began with the 10-person polar bear contingent arriving like clockwork right on time at 8 a.m. at the New Jersey and Independence Avenue intersection where the mass media, following our outreach, were arriving, lots of TV cameras and still cameras and reporters. The polar bears moved to one of the main entrances to the Cannon House of Representatives office building and blockaded it. When forced to move by the police, they continued their demonstrative action, amplified by a portable sound system and creative raps and music. Within minutes the Iraq vets group arrived to take the place of the polar bears blockading the same entrance. They refused to leave, and after 10-15 minutes arrests began. While these actions were taking place, on the opposite side of the Cannon building, 25 people part of a "Separate Oil and State" action were blocking another main entrance and, in turn, being arrested for it. Soon after the Iraq vets group were taken away, up came the Students for a Democratic Society contingent in their yellow Campus Climate Challenge t-shirts who immediately moved into the middle of Independence Avenue, a major through street on Capitol Hill, completely blocking traffic for what became 45 minutes. Chanting, "Resistance is Forming, No War, No Warming," these 25 young people were a joy and an inspiration. The 100-150 or so people who were clustered along either side of the street began to chant, as the police moved in to start making arrests, "Arrest Bush, Not the Kids." After "the kids" were moved off of Independence and were slowly processed and loaded onto a waiting bus, and as traffic began to move again on Independence, all of a sudden a second wave of activists took over the street and again blocked traffic. I was part of this group, with six young people. We were all arrested within what seemed like no more than 10 minutes. Afterwards, as I heard later, five more people were arrested, including three polar bears, as the police over-reacted to the second wave action and began pushing people away from the intersection. The five arrested were in the process of moving away but apparently not fast enough or in the correct manner for the police, and afterwards in the Capitol garage discussions began about taking legal action to challenge these illegal arrests. None of them were given any verbal warnings, as the law requires, that if they didn't move they would be arrested. The time in the Capitol garage was memorable. For hours we talked with one another, we interacted with the dozens of cops watching over us, we sang song after song, we started discussions about what do we do next, and over time our righteous and joyous, if tired, spirit was transforming the faces, body language and actions of some of the police. We even succeeded by the end of the afternoon in forming ourselves into a circle, joining the segregated female and male sides of the line-up of chairs, as the stern but apparently good-hearted police woman in charge first told us to move back but then good-naturedly relented. And talk about inter-generational! A majority of those arrested were young people under 25, maybe under 22, while the grey head generation was respectably represented with other ages in between. It was a joy to be part of this action, especially with the young people. In the words of Ella Baker, "Young people come first, they have the courage where we fail, and if we can just shed some light while they carry us through the gale, we who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes." No time for resting now. The movement is building. Next up: the big October 27 regional peace demonstrations organized by United for Peace and Justice and, one weekend later, the huge, 5,000 students-or-more Power Shift conference at the U. of Maryland being organized by Energy Action, with local Step It Up actions around the country on November 3. We're on the move! ${bottom_text_ad} [This message sent using the IPPN Announce e-mail list. 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